Incorrect Assumptions
by dreamscholar
Summary: Assumptions are often formed with incomplete information. Working late one night, Zach reflects on how much Dr. Brennan does for her "family", even if no one but he can see it.


This is just a little fic I wrote to keep myself happy. Hope it can do the same for you.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Anyone who had just met Dr. Temperance Brennan could easily make the assumption that she was a cold, uncaring woman who lived for her job. If they stuck around long enough though, they would learn that they were only partly correct in their assumptions.

Such was the case with Zach Addy, grad student and assistant to Dr. Brennan. It was her dedication to her work that first enamored him of Dr. Brennan. She did what no one else could do: give the dead their identities back. Zach had admired her for that for a long time before he finally got up the nerve to apply to be her assistant. His fellow grad students had warned him about her unorthodox methods and extremely high expectations. He felt he was up to the challenge, though, and applied anyway.

She accepted his application and he began to work with her at the Jeffersonian Institute. At first he had been intimidated and awestruck in her presence. As time went by he managed to look past that and see how wrong his peers had been in observing Dr. Brennan. It was true that she had some interesting methods and high expectations, but to call her cold and uncaring was so erroneous that it made Zach angry.

Being the invisible assistant meant that he could observe the others at the lab without their direct knowledge. He began to see how much Dr. Brennan truly cared for her team. They really were a family and she did many things in order to make them happy even if said family didn't know half of what she did for them. But Zach knew, and he admired her even more because of his observations.

When Dr. Hodgins' favorite pet insects had escaped, Dr. Brennan had searched the entire lab one evening in order to track them down even though she only liked them slightly more than snakes.

Zach had been in the hallway outside her office when she got the call from Parker's school and went to pick him up because Booth was interrogating an important suspect and couldn't leave the office.

He had been working late the night that Angela had been dumped by her boyfriend. He had seen Dr. Brennan hand the other woman a bowl of ice cream and settle in to share in Angela's misery for a while, even if she couldn't quite understand why she was so upset.

He had been nearby and had heard Dr. Brennan playing the cool, soothing voice of reason for a worried Cam.

These instances didn't even come close to what she had done for him. Dr. Brennan had given Zach the first home in which he was completely accepted. Where everyone knew how different he was and didn't care. Zach couldn't even come close to ever thanking Dr. Brennan, but he tried to show what he felt by living up to her expectations.

It was this desire to prove himself to her that had him working late again tonight. Booth had brought in a new body that afternoon and Dr. Brennan was anxious to identify the victim as quickly as possible. He had just come up with a few likely matches and headed to Dr. Brennan's office to show her. Despite Angela's disapproving comments, Dr. Brennan had been working more and more lately, so Zach thought he had a good chance of finding her there.

He saw the lights on in her office and quickened his pace, eager to show her his findings. Upon poking his head around the door, Zach observed Dr. Brennan fast asleep on the couch, files scattered on the couch and floor around her. Zach quickly gathered the files in a neat pile on her table and draped the blanket from the back of the couch around Dr. Brennan's sleeping form.

On an impulse he swept her hair back from her face and tucked it gently behind her ear. He had turned the lights off and was about to leave the room when he heard a contented sigh and a sleepy "Thank you, Zach."

Most people only saw the cold, uncaring shell that Dr. Brennan often wore unknowingly, and it was this that they based their assumptions off of. Zach felt honored that he was one of the few that could get close enough to see otherwise. He smiled.

"Of course, Dr. Brennan."

Thanks for reading. Sorry if it didn't live up to your expectations. Please review and let me know what you think.

- dreamscholar


End file.
